Products based on nanotechnology or containing nanoparticles (NPs) are found in the entire food chain, from cultivation (agriculture), to the industrial processing and packaging of foods. Nanoscale materials can be naturally occurring, may be intentionally added or may be the result of unintentional contamination.
Intentionally added NPs are frequently used to improve taste, flavour, colour, texture, and consistency of foodstuffs, to increase absorption and bioavailability of nutraceuticals and health supplements, to develop food antimicrobials. Engineered nanomaterials result very useful also in food processing, food packaging, and storage include monitoring of food quality, safety, and biosecurity (for example, nanosensors for traceability and monitoring the condition of food during transport and storage).
By focusing the attention on the intentionally added NPs, their functionalities (e.g. release of food additives) depend on the physicochemical properties of NPs (size and size distribution, surface area, shape, solubility and dissolution, reactivity, coagulation or aggregation state, chemical composition, etc.) and on the biological matrices (compounds that are present in the matrix and thermodynamic conditions).
In this presentation, some examples of NPs used in the food chain are given, by distinguishing them between soft and hard nano-entities. Since the agricultural and food samples are heterogeneous systems, which may contain a mixture of natural and engineering NPs of different composition, their detection and characterization are usually very difficult and complex. In particular, nano-emulsions, micelles, nano-liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles or nanostructured lipid carriers, biopolymers can be well characterised during their formulation by using many of the conventional analytical techniques (imaging, separation and spectroscopic techniques), but the sample pre-treatment necessary to reduce, for example the food matrix complexity, might introduce important alterations which make their in situ analysis sometimes almost impossible.

Products based on nanotechnology or containing nanoparticles (NPs) are found in the entire food chain, from cultivation (agriculture), to the industrial processing and packaging of foods. Nanoscale materials can be naturally occurring, may be intentionally added or may be the result of unintentional contamination.
Intentionally added NPs are frequently used to improve taste, flavour, colour, texture, and consistency of foodstuffs, to increase absorption and bioavailability of nutraceuticals and health supplements, to develop food antimicrobials. Engineered nanomaterials result very useful also in food processing, food packaging, and storage include monitoring of food quality, safety, and biosecurity (for example, nanosensors for traceability and monitoring the condition of food during transport and storage).
By focusing the attention on the intentionally added NPs, their functionalities (e.g. release of food additives) depend on the physicochemical properties of NPs (size and size distribution, surface area, shape, solubility and dissolution, reactivity, coagulation or aggregation state, chemical composition, etc.) and on the biological matrices (compounds that are present in the matrix and thermodynamic conditions).
In this presentation, some examples of NPs used in the food chain are given, by distinguishing them between soft and hard nano-entities. Since the agricultural and food samples are heterogeneous systems, which may contain a mixture of natural and engineering NPs of different composition, their detection and characterization are usually very difficult and complex. In particular, nano-emulsions, micelles, nano-liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles or nanostructured lipid carriers, biopolymers can be well characterised during their formulation by using many of the conventional analytical techniques (imaging, separation and spectroscopic techniques), but the sample pre-treatment necessary to reduce, for example the food matrix complexity, might introduce important alterations which make their in situ analysis sometimes almost impossible.